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Did You Know?

We borrowed the word antipode over 600 years ago. It first appeared in a translation of a Latin text as a word designating "men that have their feet against our feet," that is, inhabitants of the opposite side of the globe. The word, which originated in Greek, combines anti-, meaning "opposite," with the root pod-, meaning "foot." "Antipode" is no longer used in English as a designation for people, but the notion of the other side of the globe lives on in its current geographical sense. We have come to use the plural term "antipodes" (pronounced \an-TIH-puh-deez) to refer to Australia and New Zealand because they are on the other side of the earth from Britain.

Origin and Etymology of antipode

Middle English antipodes, plural, persons dwelling at opposite points on the globe, from Latin, from Greek, from plural of antipod-, antipous with feet opposite, from anti- + pod-, pous foot — more at foot